Md. Students Scurry To Fulfill Service Learning

But this was no spontaneous act of goodwill for the Bel Air High
School 9th grader. It was part of her coursework in Patrick
Whitehurst's freshman government class and helped fulfill a statewide
requirement that all students perform community service before
graduating.

"It's given me an opportunity that wouldn't have been there," she
said last week. "I didn't even know a soup kitchen existed in Harford
County."

As a freshman, Ms. Neubauer has a leg up on meeting a requirement
some Maryland seniors are now scrambling to fulfill. This year's
graduating class is the first required to perform community
service.

The state recently reported that as of mid-March, in three of the
state's largest districts, more than 20 percent of the seniors hadn't
completed enough service to graduate. School officials have sent home
reminders and arranged more service opportunities.

As graduation nears, Maryland's mandate is drawing more attention. A
growing number of educators are considering using service learning to
help produce graduates who are both educated and good citizens. An
estimated 2.5 million young people were expected to perform community
service as part of National Youth Service Day April 15.

And President Clinton this month urged other states to follow
Maryland's lead.

"In serious debates about the future of education, you can't ignore
the role of service learning," said Luke Frazier, who directs the
Maryland Student Service Alliance, the group monitoring the state
mandate.

Sending the Message

Under the Maryland mandate, districts could either require 75 hours
of service or seek state approval for a plan that infused service
learning throughout their academic programs. All of Maryland's 24
districts chose the latter.

Ideally, supporters say, the projects should connect classroom
learning with community life.

In Harford County, where nearly all of the district's 2,048 seniors
have completed their requirement, students in Linn Griffiths' 7th grade
science class are monitoring the impact of their school on streams
leading into the Chesapeake Bay. The students' reports are handed over
to the state department of natural resources, she said.

"I don't think I would have been as ambitious without the
requirement," Ms. Griffiths said. "We would have studied the bay, but I
wouldn't have taken them out to monitor the water quality."

Not every district has been so successful. As of the middle of last
month, 36,820, or 85 percent, of the state's 43,079 seniors had
completed their districts' requirements. Just one month before, 34,899
had met the requirement. Of the approximately 6,260 students without
enough service to graduate, about 2,280 were 75 percent complete.

"I don't think the students all got the message," said Pat Richards,
who coordinates service learning for the 124,000-student Prince
George's County system, the state's largest district. "When you're in
9th, 10th, or early in 11th grade, you're always thinking, 'I can do it
later.'"

The noncompletion rate among students in Prince George's County fell
from 32 percent to 17 percent from mid-February to mid-March, according
to state figures.

Ms. Richards and others contend that many students have done the
required service and need only to turn in documentation. School
officials elsewhere in the state say many students failing to perform
enough service also have not fulfilled other graduation
requirements.

Busywork?

The rush to get more students to fulfill the requirement has
prompted some critics to question the kinds of service being done.

"They are so desperate for students to complete the hours that they
have kids doing the most mundane things, like stuffing envelopes," said
Scott Bullock, a lawyer with the Washington-based Institute for
Justice, which has unsuccessfully supported legal challenges to
service-learning requirements.

Mr. Bullock questions districts' having students perform their
service by doing administrative tasks in school offices. A spokesman
for the Prince George's system, for example, said a student answers
phones and does filing in his office.

"It fulfills the requirement, and it gives school-to-work training,"
countered Ms. Richards, who stressed that the district has many
students also working on river cleanups or with senior citizens. "It's
a nice option for students who are not comfortable working in a nursing
home."

Despite complaints that required student service amounts to
involuntary servitude, critics haven't quelled interest in the state
mandate.

Maryland lawmakers this year introduced a bill to abolish the state
mandate, but it failed to move. The U.S. Supreme Court has three times
declined to hear cases challenging districtwide requirements. ("Court Holds Service Rule Does Not Violate
Rights," Jan. 10, 1996.)

In a recent weekly radio address, President Clinton challenged other
states to adopt programs similar to Maryland's. Allowing young people
community-service opportunities will be one goal of the Presidents'
Summit for America's Future, to be held in Philadelphia April
27-29.

Led by Mr. Clinton, former President George Bush, and retired Gen.
Colin L. Powell, the national conference on volunteering aims to give
children an ongoing relationship with a caring adult, safe places and
structured activities during nonschool hours, and an education toward a
marketable skill.

As an incentive toward community service, the president also made a
pitch for his new National Service Scholars program. Launched this
month by the Corporation for National Service, the $3 million program
will provide at least $500 in scholarship funds for each school that
can raise another $500 for a student the school recognizes for
performing community service.